An MP accused of dishonestly claiming more than £20,000 in expenses will appear in court today.

Eric Illsley, Labour representative for Barnsley Central, is charged with false accounting in relation to three years of expenses claimed on his second home in London.

He is the fifth politician to face criminal charges after the expenses scandal last year.

Illsley is due to attend City of Westminster Magistrates' Court this afternoon for a first appearance.

It is alleged that Illsley dishonestly claimed expenses for council tax, maintenance, insurance and utilities at his second home in Renfrew Road, Kennington, south London, between May 2005 and April 2008.

He has since been suspended from the Labour Party.

Earlier this month, a judge ruled that three other former Labour MPs and a Tory peer would have to stand trial in a criminal court over accusations that they fiddled their expenses.

Mr Justice Saunders said the four men were not protected from prosecution by parliamentary privilege and as such could be tried in the criminal courts.

Former Labour MPs David Chaytor, Elliot Morley, and Jim Devine, and Tory peer Lord Hanningfield, also known as Paul White, are accused of theft by false accounting.